Fever, almost every family with children will encounter things, see the child wilted, can not eat and sleep well, difficult to cry, adults are often anxious, busy. There are always friends around who are puzzled and envious to ask: “Why do you have a fever, you dare not go to the hospital, do not take time off work, do not delay work, do not panic, the baby’s illness on the good?” Today, let’s talk about some of our experiences in caring for pediatric fevers. How to determine whether you should go to the hospital for examination or treatment First of all, it should be noted that the child is sick, the doctor is still the most reliable and authoritative and trustworthy people, if you do not have confidence and a little common sense in medicine, do not hesitate to go to a professional organization for help. Here to popularize a common medical knowledge that every parent should know, which is one of the most important bases for us to choose whether to take care of the child at home or go to the hospital for medication. From a medical point of view, fever caused by viral infections can be recovered through home care, but bacterial infections need to be treated with antibiotics. If parents can’t tell whether the fever is viral or bacterial from observing their child’s condition, the safest way is to go to the hospital and have the blood tests and CRP (C-reactive protein) checked. If the results show that the white blood cell and neutrophil values are higher than the normal range, it means that it is a bacterial infection; however, sometimes, due to individual differences in the child’s immunity and other factors, the results may show that the white blood cell and neutrophil values are within the normal range, but only the CRP is high, which is also indicative of bacterial infections (CRP is the most sensitive indicator for detecting bacteria, and is positively correlated with bacterial infections). Combined with the above findings, it is time to consider giving your child antibiotic treatment as prescribed by the doctor. If there is no urgency to go to the hospital for laboratory tests, but within one to two days of the onset of the disease, the child appears to be significantly worse, depressed, severe coughing and wheezing, headache, nausea and vomiting, persistent high fever of more than 39 degrees and the ineffectiveness of the cooling measures, hyperthermia and other phenomena, you should seek medical attention in a timely manner. As a parent, in order to correctly observe and judge the child’s basic condition, you need to learn some basic knowledge of pediatric diseases (we recommend “Encyclopedia of Parenting” written by Michio Matsuda, which is very practical). Provide adequate psychological comfort and support to the child The reason for placing psychological comfort before cooling measures is that, in practice, this is quite important but neglected by many families. When your child has a fever, tell him from time to time in a firm tone of voice, “Mommy believes that Dongdang will be able to overcome the little cold virus”, “Fever is not a big deal, everyone has it”, “As long as Dongdang drinks a lot of water, he’ll get better quickly”, etc. It’s not a big deal to have a fever, everyone has them. When your child is having a hard time, hold him and give him support by telling him, “Mommy knows you’re not feeling well right now”. The child will feel our calmness and firmness, and he will mobilize his own system to respond positively and actively accept various cooling measures in order to fight off the virus more quickly. At this point, various cooling measures to alleviate the symptoms are often twice as effective. The success of these measures can further give the child confidence, which creates a virtuous cycle that is very conducive to the improvement of the child’s condition. The worst thing is for family members to blame each other, not looking for solutions but eager to prove that “it’s not my responsibility”, or without a little basic knowledge but blaming the hospital and doctors, such negative emotions can easily overwhelm the child’s psychological defenses, so that he is stuck in the worry, fear, self-blame. We all know that the child’s quality of sleep is very affected by fever, some children will also have nightmares, talking nonsense, fussing, crying, this time the mother’s nighttime soothing and cooling measures are particularly important, and even some mothers almost sleepless night. In this state of physical and mental exhaustion, upset, angry yelling may be inevitable. Here, I would like to remind mothers that in child care mothers are the backbone and backbone of the family, the attitude of the mother not only directly affects the child, but also through the influence of other family members, the secondary effect on the child. So mothers must bring more positive energy to their children. Family Physical Cooling Measures If the fever is low, we will generally let the child wear less and cover less, which is different from the adult fever to cover the sweat of the argument that the child’s skin is weak to regulate the temperature, if the fever is covered up, the heat is not good, and the temperature rises particularly fast. In addition, we will adhere to the habit of taking a bath once a day, or even more than once, bathing is very effective in cooling, but pay attention to bathing when the window is closed, prepare clothing in advance, to avoid the second cold. When encountering a temperature of more than 39 degrees, in addition to wearing less cover and bathing several times a day, but also from time to time with warm water to wipe the face and body, if the high fever persists, you can uninterrupted scrubbing. Anti-fever patches can also be applied to the forehead, armpits, and back of the neck, but if the child is small, he or she may feel uncomfortable and quickly pull off the patch or move its position. From personal experience, the back of the neck and armpits may be out of reach of the child’s hands and can be applied for a longer period of time. When I had a one year and two month old toddler with emergency rash, it was just after the Chinese New Year when the weather was still relatively cold. The child’s body temperature was especially high when he slept, especially near his temples, and he slept very uneasily. We put a summer mat on the place where he slept, and wrapped an ice pack in a towel and put it around the mat without directly touching his body, plus scrubbing him from time to time, and the child’s temperature was effectively lowered and he slept more soundly. Advice on fever-reducing medications For home care, fever-reducing medications should only be considered if physical cooling is not effective, and are not the first choice. In addition, the dosage should be strictly controlled according to the instructions and according to the child’s weight, as overdosage can lead to dehydration! Nowadays, pediatricians generally recommend drinking fever-reducing medication when the temperature reaches 38.5 degrees or above, and generally drink the medication at intervals of four to six hours or more. Toddler rash, for example, the first day of high fever will be more serious, it is likely to drink the antipyretic soon after the fever again, this time with the bath can be effective in lowering the temperature, in order to reduce the number of times to drink antipyretic. On the second day, the fever will be less severe, and you may only need to drink antipyretics once in the whole day. The time between fevers also allows you to tell if your child is getting better and boosts your confidence in your own care. Drinking and eating Drinking plenty of water is a must, and when your child feels like being proactive in defeating small germs and viruses, even if he or she doesn’t usually like plain water, he or she will gulp it down. But if the child really can not drink water, then cook some apple water, ice sugar, pear water, etc., you can change the pattern of cooking every day. In addition, other diets are also light, white porridge, potatoes, sweet potatoes, purple potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, pumpkins, turnip soup, leafy greens and so on are very good, likewise, you can change the pattern to do, such as sweet potatoes, you can do sweet potato congee, sweet potato puree, baked sweet potatoes …… after the fever is reduced the child also need to recover slowly, so the diet is also Gradually add some meat and fish, so that the child’s stomach and intestines have a process of adaptation. Conclusion: the child occasionally fever is not a bad thing, take it as a good opportunity to exercise the child’s immunity, resistance, from the mentality of optimism and positive up, instead of hearing that the child is sick, all day sighing and worrying. The child will not be crushed by the disease, but will also be crushed by the mental burden. Our adult performance in the face of difficulties will be invisible by the child to learn, to be positive and optimistic and brave to face the child, then start with our own!